Almost Silent Friends
by xsilicax
Summary: Missing scene for the episode The Silent Enemy. A brief filler from Sharron's point of view; the rescuing and treating of her friends. Episode summary found inside. First Champion's fic, so would greatly appreciated any feedback.


**Summary:** Missing scene for the episode The Silent Enemy. If, like me, it's been a few years, in this episode a missing submarine is discovered, the crew all dead, still at their posts. A mission is mounted to retrace their steps, the Champions aboard. They surface to discover an island, which Richard, Craig and some of the crew members go ashore on to investigate.

**Almost Silent Friends**

Sharron's breath was catching in her throat, her chest tightening with anticipation and a little dread. They were finally floating over to the island themselves; finally going to look for her missing friends. Craig and Richard had been missing for hours. Her last glimpse had been of them collapsing into an unmoving heap on the island floor, as though something had just sucked the life out of them. She had been struggling to breathe through the weight on her chest since that moment. She had no idea if they were still alive, though she simply couldn't believe that they weren't; that she was the only one left.

It had been awful being trapped aboard the submarine, trying to convince the Captain and First Officer, without having proof, that something had happened to the landing party, which needed investigating. The Captain had been wavering; Sharron knew that Sam had felt a rapport with Craig, that the two had gotten along well. He'd felt his duty keenly however, and had been trying to do what he thought Craig would want. If only she could have found a way to explain how she was so certain that something had gone wrong, without sounding like a crazy loon.

The sand crunched sharply beneath her feet as she stepped out of the raft, assisted by the First Officer. There was a strange silence in which she could hear every movement that they were making, but could feel no signs of life apart from them. The smell of dead fish wafted up under her nose, and she caught a glimpse of the Captain eying her strangely as he recalled her describing them when they had been too far away for him to view them through his binoculars. The doctor in her wanted to gather up a few specimens to try to determine what had exterminated all life in the area, but the friend in her was already scanning the area for any sign of Richard or Craig. She turned sharply as she heard branches breaking, already forming a position to defend herself, which she relaxed from the moment she could make out the build of the approaching figures.

The Captain and the First Officer had instinctively moved in front of her, to protect her from unknown threats, but she pushed passed them reaching towards Richard who was stumbling towards her, supported obliquely by Craig. Her breath fell out in a great whoosh of relief, but the awful tight feeling that she had been experiencing did not dissipate.

"What did you find out?" She stepped towards Craig, who appeared the most together of the two. She wanted to hug the pair of them to make sure they were really in front of her, really all right, but was loath to do it with an audience.

Craig bent forwards, his hands resting on his knees, panting for breath. "Big stores of gas here, the only way to disperse it is through the atmosphere." He took a deep breath and straightened, touching Richard briefly on the shoulder.

"It could be dangerous," Richard responded. To Sharron's clinical eye he was too pale, and his hand was wrapped around his chest as though it pained him. The steady eye that Craig was also keeping on him had her concerned, though he responded with no visible notice of it.

"No, not if we get the admiral to blow this place right out of the water." His eyes lifted to the Captain who was looking around. "Is the radio fixed?"

Sam stepped forward lending a supporting arm to Craig. The First Officer had already taken Richard's arm and was leading him towards a seat in one of the boats. "At last check my engineers told me it is minutes away from repair. Let's get back to the submarine and send the message off." He paused, a look of devastated realism warring with hope on his face. "My men?"

Sharron's head lifted from where she had been bent over Richard, taking his vitals, in time to see Craig's head duck down before he raised it, staring the Captain in the eye and giving a negative shake of his head. Sam's face steeled up, only a flash of pain in his eyes showing his grief at the news. "The bodies? Can we get them home to their families?"

Sharron saw Craig's hand grip hold of Sam's shoulder tightly as he was eased down into a seat. She couldn't quite make out what was said, even with her super hearing, but from the slump in the Captain's shoulder, she knew there was no hope. She felt a hand upon hers, and looked down.

"Are you all right?" Richard gasped out, his free hand rubbing at his chest.

"Don't you think that I should be asking you that?" Sharron discretely moved her hand in his so that she could take his pulse, frowning as it felt it beating slowly, even for them. "What happened?"

Richard eyed the crewman who was piloting their craft. "Tell you when we get aboard." He reached out with his free arm to grab her other hand, which had unconsciously been rubbing at her chest. "It's okay." She flashed a quick smile at him and then glanced over to the other boat where she saw Craig, lowering his hand from a similar position, force a smile back at the pair of them.

The less said about climbing the ladder to get to the conning tower the better. Everybody was out of breath after the attempt, not least Richard and Craig who were looking exhausted. The Captain pled his excuses and left to check on the status of the radio, while the First Officer assisted the trio to the medical quarters. Craig was mostly mobile, but Richard was flagging considerably now that the urgency had left the situation. Upon reaching one of the beds he lay back with an audible groan of relief.

Sharron quickly held up an oxygen mask, attaching it over his ears despite his half-hearted attempt to waft it away. Thirty seconds in and the awful pinched whiteness of his face was beginning to ease. She felt the tightness around her chest dissipate; for the fist time she began to recognise it as another of those feelings that the three shared, rather than just her fears for their safety. With the colour returning into Richard's cheeks she risked a glance at Craig who was perched silently on a chair in the corner, ostensibly staring at the two of them, but to Sharron's eyes, not quite focussing upon them.

"Craig," she asked. "What happened?"

He blinked and then lifted his eyes towards her, struggling to describe what had happened. "It was close, Sharron." His eyes closed, then opened again swiftly. "The gas paralysed us. I could feel it happening, my heart slowing, lungs stopping; we nearly didn't survive it. The others didn't have a chance."

Sharron watched him shudder slightly. "It was so strong, we couldn't stop and help them, after. There were…" he paused struggling with breath or memories. The result was the same as Sharron pushed an oxygen mask at him, holding it over his mouth as he tried to turn aside. "We couldn't help them; not and make it out ourselves."

His eyes pleaded with her not to ask any more questions, and he was spared them for the moment as the Captain came back into the room, reporting that the radio was fixed. Craig stood, with a grunt, levering himself off from the back of the chair, lowering his mask, and stepped towards the doorway. "I'll let Tremayne know what needs to be done." He paused, eyeing the pair of them in concern, "Look after Richard, they were experimenting on him with the gas."

Almost before he had left the room, Richard was turning towards Sharron, lowering his mask, his breathing close to normal. "He's the one who needs looking after; knucklehead would have died trying to pull everyone out of there if I hadn't stopped him. And they were the ones who created this damn gas!"

Sharron smiled gently as she eased Richard back down again. The tight feeling in her chest had finally relaxed; she had her men back, alive, and if not well, then on the way to getting there. She felt the submarine rock as the energy from the explosion which destroyed the gas was dissipated by the water.

All was right with her world, though for how much longer she didn't dare tempt fate and say.


End file.
